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An NHL Instant Classic: Penguins vs Capitals

Total Pro Sports – If you love NHL Playoff action than what transpired last night between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals surely left you satisfied. The former MVP’s and without question the two best players in the world today put on a show and heightened their rivalry if that is even possible.

It was like a title fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, both landing blows and the other responding to the challenge. Sidney Crosby landed the first jab with a power play goal in the first only to be followed by Alexander Ovechkin’s blast to open the 2nd. However, Sid “the kid” answered back with another goal in the 2nd which was very similar to his first, going to the net and taking no prisoners, which is something that I would like to see him do more of in the future.

The game was tied 2-2 going into the third where Alex “the great” took over the game. A patented one time blast on the power play that if stopped by G Marc Andre Fleury would have probably left him out of game 4 (just kidding people). Ovie was not finished; he followed that beauty goal with another; taking on fellow countrymen Sergei Gonchar one-on-one and rifling a wrist shot past him and over the glove of Mr. Fleury who had no idea where the shot went, and who could blame him. Down 4-2 with under a minute to play Mr. Crosby did everything he could to carry his team on his back. He answered with his own hat trick by relentlessly whacking away at a puck to the left of G Simeon Varlamov and eventually batting it out of mid air. Unfortunately for Sid and the Pens the Caps held on for a 4-3 thriller and are now going to Pittsburgh with a 2-0 series lead.

Full marks to these two men who have brought back a fierce rivalry to the NHL. Sidney Crosby impressed me last night with his ability to score and answer the call. I am not surprised with Ovechkin’s performance because he is the best player in the world and he has a knack for scoring timely goals. The ‘Crosby vs Ovechkin’ rivalry has written a new chapter with many more to come, hopefully they will churn out another super human performance down the road; we might not be waiting too long because game 3 is on Wednesday at 7 p.m at the Mellon Arena. In the words of Terrell Owens, “Get your Popcorn Ready”!